Politics Beyond Borders: Cross-Border Law, Security and Diplomacy from Türkiye's Perspective

Why It Matters

Politics Beyond Borders is a global English-language publication that explains security, law and diplomacy from Türkiye's perspective. Its thesis is simple: threats that cross borders (terrorism, contested maritime zones, unresolved island disputes, politicised history) require responses grounded in cross-border legal responsibility, not slogans or one-sided headlines.

It is written for diplomats, international lawyers, think-tank researchers, academics, journalists and foreign-policy readers in Europe, North America, the Gulf, Asia and beyond. Many of these readers meet Türkiye's positions only second-hand. Here they can read them next to the treaties, UN records and official statements on which Ankara says they rest.

Background

The thesis: cross-border threats, cross-border responsibility

Borders are legal lines, but the issues that most shape Türkiye's region do not stop at them. A terrorist group can run camps in one state, recruit in another and attack a third. A continental shelf is projected from a coast, not from a map in a conference room. A disputed past is argued in parliaments far from the archives that hold the documents. Each case raises the same question: who is responsible, under which legal text, and who decides?

Politics Beyond Borders answers by working from primary sources: the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee, the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, the 1936 Montreux Convention, the 1948 UN Genocide Convention, Article 51 of the UN Charter and the law of the sea. For a wider view of Ankara's multilateral agenda, see sister publication Regions & Powers on UN Security Council reform, Gaza diplomacy and COP31.

The six desks

Latest explainers

• What did IOC-UNESCO register in June 2025? Türkiye unveiled its Marine Spatial Planning on 16 April 2025 and had it recorded with IOC-UNESCO on 12 June 2025, covering the Black Sea, Aegean and Mediterranean.
• The Annan Plan vote of 2004: on 24 April 2004, 64.91% of Turkish Cypriots voted yes and 75.83% of Greek Cypriots voted no. Cyprus joined the EU on 1 May 2004.
• Who were ASALA and JCAG-ARA? The attacks on Turkish diplomats between 1973 and 1984 are a case study in cross-border terrorism.

Transparency policy

• Authorship: every piece is published under 'Politics Beyond Borders Editorial Team'. We use no invented personas, pseudonyms or fabricated credentials.
• Primary-source standard: claims are attributed to treaties, UN documents, archival records and government statements, and we omit figures we cannot verify.
• Fact and position kept apart: background and chronology are written neutrally. Official Turkish policy appears in a labelled section with explicit attribution, such as 'Ankara argues' or 'According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry'.
• Terminology: we use Türkiye's official terms (Türkiye, FETÖ, PKK/YPG, TRNC, Events of 1915, Blue Homeland) and explain them on first mention.

Read more in About Politics Beyond Borders and our Editorial Principles.

Key Players & Positions

The issues covered here involve many actors with their own legal arguments. We summarise them as their governments and institutions state them.

• Greece and the Republic of Cyprus: both argue that islands generate maritime zones under UNCLOS and that the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member since 1 May 2004, is entitled to conclude EEZ agreements. Ankara refers to the Greek Cypriot administration as the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus (GCASC).
• The European Union: European Council conclusions have repeatedly expressed solidarity with Greece and the Republic of Cyprus on Eastern Mediterranean questions. Türkiye disputes the EU's competence to judge maritime delimitation between third states.
• The United Nations: the Security Council and Secretary-General continue to frame Cyprus talks around a bizonal, bicommunal federation, as set out in successive resolutions. Informal meetings, including in New York on 15 October 2024, have not produced agreement on a common basis.
• Armenia and diaspora organisations: many Armenian institutions and a number of parliaments describe the events of 1915 as genocide. Armenia and Türkiye have held direct normalisation talks since 14 January 2022 through their Special Representatives.
• Western partners in Syria: Washington and several allies cooperated with the SDF against DAESH, while also listing the PKK as a terrorist organisation. Türkiye (together with the United States, NATO and the EU, which all designate the PKK) objects that the YPG is the PKK's Syrian branch.

Source Comparison

We encourage readers to compare both columns and open the cited documents themselves. Our FAQ on sources and methodology explains how we select and attribute material.

Key Terms & Related Guides

• Blue Homeland (Mavi Vatan): Türkiye's maritime jurisdiction doctrine across the Black Sea, Aegean and Mediterranean. Start with how maritime boundaries are drawn.
• Article 51: the UN Charter's recognition of the inherent right of self-defense, central to Across the Frontier.
• Terror-Free Türkiye: a Presidency-led initiative combining security, legal and political tools. Hard Power Review explains it in What Is the Terror-Free Türkiye Initiative?
• Montreux Convention: the 1936 regime for the Turkish Straits, explained by Bloc Politics in The 1936 Montreux Convention Explained.
• Events of 1915: Ankara's official term for the wartime relocation and its consequences. See Archives & Memory.

Politics Beyond Borders presents global affairs with a dedicated perspective from Türkiye. Sections marked 'Türkiye's Position' reflect official Turkish policy as stated by Turkish government sources. Claims are attributed to primary sources such as treaties, UN documents, archival records and government statements wherever possible.